DCPolitics

Mick Mulvaney Pivots …

… RIPS MITT ROMNEY, GOP ELITES U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney used to get lots of love from this website.  Lately?  Not so much. What happened?  Did we “turn” on him?  Or did he turn on you, the taxpayers? From our vantage point Mulvaney – who unseated powerful Democrat John Spratt…

… RIPS MITT ROMNEY, GOP ELITES

U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney used to get lots of love from this website.  Lately?  Not so much.

What happened?  Did we “turn” on him?  Or did he turn on you, the taxpayers?

From our vantage point Mulvaney – who unseated powerful Democrat John Spratt during the 2010 Tea Party election – has veered wildly toward the middle of the political spectrum in recent years.  In fact he’s basically become a card-carrying member of the “Republican” establishment in Washington, D.C. (which is full of people no better than the big government backer he defeated).

Seriously … no better.

Anyway … Mulvaney was recently hit with a bout of pneumonia, forcing him to stay in bed for several days.  That time away from the establishment “bubble” appears to have done his brain some good.

At least that’s our takeaway from a lengthy screed he posted to Facebook recently …

 … many of you know that I supported Rand Paul, and chose not to endorse anyone else after he got out of the GOP race. That isn’t what this is about. This isn’t about being for Trump, or against him. It is about defending the democratic process, and the ordinary people on whom it is built. It is about the larger message I am hearing out of the establishment leadership of my party whether they are elected officials, members of the donor class, or lobbyists.

And this is the message I am hearing: There really is a group of people at the head of my party who think they know best, that they are the “only adults” in the room. More disturbingly, they really do seem to think that is we would all just do what they say, everything would be fine. This concept of “we know better than the voters” is in large part what is driving Trump’s success in the first place.

And it both frightens and disgusts me.

Mitt Romney — and much of the Republican Party — still thinks that he lost the last election because of a “brutal primary” in which he was mortally wounded by in-fighting within the GOP. The Republican Party certainly bought into that story. Our “leaders” decided that what we needed to do in order to increase our chance this year was to change the primary system. Earlier conventions, fewer debates, different schedules. So, that is what we did. And still, somehow, we have Donald Trump.

I have another theory: Mitt lost because he was a lousy candidate who was uniquely and spectacularly incapable of spearheading the conservative challenge against what should have been the central issue of the 2012 campaign: Obamacare. He lost because he was exposed as being yet another big-government Republican. And while there absolutely were many important differences between Romney and Obama, the GOP cannot ignore that it is hard to rally the country — especially independent voters — to the conservative principle of limited government when your top salesman doesn’t believe what he is selling.

Mitt Romney didn’t lose because the primary system was broken. He lost because it worked. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happy about that — as losing to Obama will be looked at a generation from now as we would have looked back on 1980 today if Carter had defeated Reagan — but it worked. It worked to bring out the facts about the various candidates, to showcase their strengths, and to expose their weaknesses.

That is what primaries are supposed to.

I have no idea what Donald Trump is. I don’t know if he is conservative or moderate … trustworthy or devious. And my guess is that most people that are supporting him don’t either. But here is the message I am getting from folks back home, Mitt: people think that, at the very least, he isn’t one of you. And that is enough for them.

It’s almost getting to the point where it is enough for me. I didn’t vote for Donald Trump, but if he wins enough delegates to earn our party’s nomination, I plan on supporting him. I wouldn’t support him if I thought he were a racist or an anarchist or mentally unfit to serve. But I don’t believe any of those things. I will support him because I believe that Hillary Clinton would certainly be worse as President. And I also believe that the system our Founding Fathers gave us can work to prevent any single person — be it Donald Trump or Mitt Romney or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama — from screwing the country up too badly. Indeed, I worry less about one man or one woman in the White House ruining this country than I do the long-term influence of entrenched and self-aggrandizing political parties.

Either we trust the voters, or we don’t. We trust the primary systems, or we don’t. If you want an oligarchy, where elections are simply designed to apply a thin veneer of popular approval to candidates you have pre-determined for us — then have the nerve to say it.

Otherwise, please shut up.

And please recognize that, since 1992, what has been demanded from us small-government types in the GOP, after the big-government types won the primaries, was that we “unite for the good of the party.” Our tolerance for your childlike rants now that voters have kicked all your chosen candidates to the curb is zero.

Wow …

Where’s that guy been?

Maybe it’s the anti-pneumonia drugs talking, but Mulvaney’s assessment of the tone deafness of the “Republican” establishment is dead-on.   And his assessment Mitt Romney‘s failed 2012 bid is similarly on-point.  Most encouraging from our perspective, though, is his reference to the inherent dangers associated with the “long-term influence of entrenched and self-aggrandizing political parties.”

That’s channeling the founding wisdom of U.S. president John Adams, who wrote in October 1870 that “there is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.”

“This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution,” he added.

Of course talk is cheap … Mulvaney needs to accompany this feisty rhetoric with the sort of principled pro-freedom, pro-free market advocacy he showed early on in his political career. If he can do that, then we’d be pleased to get back to praising him … and supporters of freedom and free markets would likely get back to supporting him.

***

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24 comments

Nat March 8, 2016 at 11:04 am

Mick only started pandering to the Trump voters and RW crazies because he has a Dem running against him this fall. Joe Biden’s ex-aide, Fran Person.

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The Colonel (R) March 8, 2016 at 12:07 pm

Mulvany versus Person is a W in Mulvaney’s column.

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Nat March 8, 2016 at 12:30 pm

I don’t know much about Person, but Mulvaney darted to the far right when Adams ran against him in 2014. Then slide more to the center after he won.

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Goobersmacker March 8, 2016 at 11:26 am

“I wouldn’t support him if I thought he were a racist or an anarchist or mentally unfit to serve. But I don’t believe any of those things.”
That’s because you’re a fucking moron, Mick.

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Pogo March 8, 2016 at 11:44 am

There sure are a lot of guys like me in the Republican party huh!

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TroubleBaby March 9, 2016 at 10:05 am

Notice he draws the distinction between racist & anarchist and “mentally unfit”…lol

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The Colonel (R) March 8, 2016 at 12:06 pm

Franny is a second stringer in every job he’s ever held as an assistant to Biden, a front officer for the Red Sox, a second or third stringer at USC, now an “advisor” to Tanner and Pastidies (I’d love to know what he advises them on – how to produce a minimum of one gaffe per speech a la Joe “what’d he just say” Biden?)

All you really need to know about him is the “Ol’Pooty Poot” Hartpootlian and Ol’Enos Clyburn both like him.

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Screw Em! March 8, 2016 at 2:35 pm

All you really need to know about Mulvaney is he is a typical Republican whose main purpose in being in Washington is to find ways to benefit the wealthy and screw over working people .

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Hank March 8, 2016 at 7:37 pm

Wrong. He also wants to collect his government check, his government health care, and his government retirement. What a sweet deal. How much have the Taxpayers paid him over the last 10 years?

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BiggieTea March 8, 2016 at 12:10 pm

That quote from Adams is from 1780 not 1870.

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Bible Thumper March 8, 2016 at 1:29 pm

And it was Don Adams not John Adams. ;-)

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Tazmaniac March 8, 2016 at 1:41 pm

Missed by that much!

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Flip March 8, 2016 at 1:58 pm

Sam was my favorite Adams anyways.

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CorruptionInColumbia March 8, 2016 at 12:14 pm

I hope Mulvaney’s “conversion” is permanent and not a fleeting, temporary, thing. Prior to this, I haven’t seen much to admire about him as of late.

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Hank March 8, 2016 at 12:41 pm

Mulvaney is a typical Politician. He says what the thinks benefits him at any time. That is the way it is with career politicians. Cruz, Rubio, Haley, Mulvaney, etc. etc They don’t know how to do anything except cash a government check. We need to get rid of career politicians.
With Trump we have someone who has done something with his life besides soak the Taxpayer.

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CorruptionInColumbia March 8, 2016 at 12:49 pm

Agreed! My respect for Dickveiny began to seriously wane when he attacked Trump for his anti-muslim comnents.

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RogueElephant March 8, 2016 at 12:20 pm

If Trump gets to the convention with a majority of the votes but not enough to win on the first ballot, and the establishment steals the nomination from him , it will be hell to pay. What really burns my grits is the fact that the party would rather have a “business man” that bought out companies, mortgaged them to the hilt, foreclosed on them , then sold off the assets leaving the workers high and dry. While they have the chance to have a business man that built hotels, golf courses and casinos that have thousands of employees making good wages. This alone tells me all I need to know as to which side the establishment is on . Trump 2016

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Respect your betters March 8, 2016 at 5:14 pm

Judge Jeanine said it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VMZSXzy7O0

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CorruptionInColumbia March 8, 2016 at 7:30 pm

God, did she ever!!!!! She totally spoke the truth!!!!

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erneba March 8, 2016 at 12:47 pm

Mick probably had time to remember, while confined to his bed and away from the Washington establishment, that he was elected because he promised not to be the standard “go along to get along” establishment politician like Spratt.
People these days are as much concerned about “bad habits” as much as the political philosophy of your political party.

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Tazmaniac March 8, 2016 at 1:39 pm

That sounds more like the guy I originally supported.

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Lone Ranger March 8, 2016 at 5:16 pm

Yo…Mick?…it’s Paul Ryan here and I just want to say again how I appreciate your RINO vote for me

Uh…sure, Paul—you know I’ve got your RINO back and I’m sure that you’ve got my RINO back…uh…me

But now, Paul—the inside polling on all of us SC Congressional RINOs—except Jeff Duncan—is really bad

And if voters keep taking a tomahawk to RINOs then come this November election results for us will be sad

So now, Paul—when you see me STILL talking out both sides of my mouth and desperately praising Trump

Just know that I’m STILL a gutless RINO like you who’s not to be trusted and who WILL get handed my rump !!!

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Dancing with the stars March 8, 2016 at 5:19 pm

Mick learned that pivot when he was a member of the lollipop guild:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XzFNLJIpUQ

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Tom March 8, 2016 at 7:35 pm

Funny, I never notice the resemblance before now.

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